Euro E2E - The Route
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Not the RED phone.......!
22 July 2008
Tuesday 22 July 2008
Just when the Lithuanian's had upped their game and sorted out the first meal of the day, the Poles go and let the side down. To ensure we were fully fuelled, we majored on the cereal part of breakfast and the cold meats/cheese/sloppy stuff was given a wide berth.
Hit the road shortly after 09:00, for a planned 60 miler to Bialystok, Poland.
Managed to avoid most of the morning hazards as we negotiated our way out of Augustow through their version of rush hour.
Even the weather played ball as we had some clouds, some sun and a side wind that didn't slow us up too much. Above all, it was DRY!
Hit the main A8-E67 and dug in for a good couple of hours graft before our first refuelling stop. Scenery very reminiscent of where we do most of our biking in the UK. i.e. Just like the countryside around Stamford and very nice too!
The café stop was considered a great success as we again both had double portions of CAKE and not just your common or garden Statoil cake but the real deal.
Feeling somewhat queasy, we put in another couple of hours of HGV dodging and arrived in Bialystok in the early afternoon.
We tried to get into our destination before the witching hour of 14:00 when swarms of nasty HGV's seem to take to the roads.The drivers having seemingly slept off their last great Yorkie indulgence or whatever else it is that seems to keep them from a normal days work.
We made straight for the IT (Tourist Info) bureau where we received exemplary help and booked into another very fancy hotel, apparently the best in town.
Within short order we had seen the end of the days Tour de France stage, showered, sauna'd and Jacuzzi'd and returned to our rather splendid room for some concerted gonking.
After a couple of hours, we took a turn around the town to spot somewhere nice for dinner. In this task, we failed miserably which proved to be a blessing in disguise.
Somewhat crestfallen, we returned to the hotel to eat. WOW!
Most will know, Tracey and Miles are foodies on the not so quiet and the meal we had tonight was FANTASTIC.
We've eaten in some pretty fancy places in our time and tonight's feast was as good as any of the Michelin star peppered places we normally frequent.
Bellies full, we returned to our room for some serious digestion.....
Total today another HGV infested 59 miles and 305m of ascent. Total trip 1656 miles.
More Southerly ramblings to follow.
Back soon. Miles & Tracey.
23 July 2008
Wednesday 23 July 2008
Breakfast in our very nice hotel reinforced the view we formed yesterday evening. The food was again very, very nice. Shame it's a bit of a one off though we could organise a few day rides around Bialystok! Somehow, this wouldn't help us towards reaching our goal in Greece.
It was also good fun watching all the be-suited business drones spouting corporate bullsh!t to each other whilst we sat loading calories into our 'calorie/forward motion conversion devices' (AKA gobs!).
Today's plan has us dispatching another 60 plus miles hopefully ending in the well known Siemiatyceze and not the Polish equivalent of A&E after being squashed by an over enthusiastic HGV driver.
Late start for us as we let the nice business people check out and get on their collective way to their important meetings without having to 'interface' with two tandem riding 'oiks'.
We rolled out of the hotel around 09:45 into Siemiatyceze's morning rush. We then did a couple of laps of the city through a navigational faux pas that would have Marco Polo turning in his grave.
Presently, we found ourselves on Route 19 and heading South once more.
There followed a sobering experience when we came across the immediate aftermath of a pedestrian/car altercation on a zebra crossing.
Thankfully, the only evidence left of what had gone on was the broken handle of a shopping basket, a bloody tissue and a large queue of traffic and police.
In the queue, we were able to leap frog all the hullabaloo and get ahead of most of it.
This must have doubly infuriated for the stuck drivers as they then had to overtake us on difficult roads adding more time to their already delayed journeys (he he).
Our customary morning CAKE stop was taken after an hour or so at a completely deserted roadside hotel. Good CAKE though....
We carried on the good work under leaden skies and the blustery wind had swung around to a full on side wind. Luckily this didn't slow us up too much though we did miss the turbo effect of yesterday's tail wind.
As the day passed the clouds attempted to release their contents but gave up after half an hour or so of half hearted feeble spotting.
An afternoon recharge in lolly form was taken at a roadside bar followed by whizzing legs that had us in Siemiatyceze in very short order.
Our efficient IT lady from yesterday had booked ahead for us today so we located the hotel and settled in to watch the TdeF animals dispatch the incredible Alpe du Huez stage.
That'll be us next week that will....in the Tatra's.
Total today a quieter 65 miles and 300m of ascent. Total trip 1722 miles.
More Southerly ramblings to follow.
Back soon. Miles & Tracey.
Monday, 21 July 2008
20 and 21 July 2008
Sunday 20 July 2008
Rest day today - Marijampole, Lithuania.
Slow start to the day followed by a surprisingly (based on recent experience) decent breakfast at the hotel.
Did a few ablutions/chores, dodged the rain showers and went for a walk into town around lunch time.
Called into the local Pizza joint for late lunch. Miles, being a pig, ordered a 'Maxi' that was almost the same size as the crap British Leyland car of the same name!! Suffice to say, a large proportion was boxed for emergency dinner rations to be consumed later.
Quick stroll around the local shopping centre to admire the best supermarket ever seen by Miles or Tracey.
Now we're not really supermarket aficionados but one that sells live Carp for customers to select gets our vote as a good one. Reminded us of choosing live Garoupa in the seafood restaurants of Hong Kong. Aaaah, nostalgia.....
Back to the hotel to see Hamilton win the German Grand Prix followed by more dossing....
Evening Scrabble followed in the local restaurant/pub which Miles won by a very convincing margin. Honours now 4-3 to Miles.
Finished a very slothful day by watching Rossi cane Casey Stoner's bum in the Moto GP race from California.
What a pleasant day off and as Rossi would say 'we're very very appy' and are ready and raring to go tomorrow.
Bring on Poland!
Monday 21 July 2008
Up and at em earlier than usual, must be ready to go!
Plan today; Marijampole, Lithuania to Augustow, Poland. Roughly 55 miles.
Another superb breakfast at the hotel, so good we can now forgive Lithuania for it's earlier breakfast time misdemeanours.
Hit the road unusually early i.e pre 09:00. We must have been spurred into action by a pair of Austrian cycle tourists staying at the same hotel
We met these two yesterday evening and exchanged war stories (oops!) whilst one of them seemed to think mastication should be a spectator sport (uuugh!).
The Austrian's got away from the hotel half an hour or so before us but we caught them and left them in our wake within 10 miles or so. Us competitive? Nah, surely not...
Stopped for the usual mid morning break at our favourite roadside services; Statoil.
Here our daily ration of CAKE was consumed. The first instalment was a little disappointing though normal standards were reinstated by the second helping!
Caked up, we hit the road again and returned to dice with the HGV's...
Presently, the Lithuanian/Polish border hove into view and we entered our sixth Country of the trip. Bye bye Baltic's, hello Eastern Europe.
Again, there was a complete absence of formality as we passed from Europe to Europe. However, there was plenty of evidence of how it was in the Soviet controlled days including watch towers, border fences etc.
Our first port of call in Poland was the town of Suwalki where we stopped again for a coffee and called into Tourist Info (IT as it's funkily known now) for accommodation details for tonight. We also spotted our first Polish Plumber, presumably on leave from the UK......
Looks like we might be able to get back onto the camping track as there seems to be a reasonable camping infrastructure in Poland. Unfortunately, the sites are not shown on the maps we have so we'll have to play it by ear.
Our caffeine levels replenished, we hit the A8-E67 again heading for Augustow.
En route, we had another 'strange themes' experience when we passed a rocket themed restaurant surrounded by deactivated missiles. We also spotted a tent pitched on top of a car (deliberately so it would seem) strange lot these Poles.....
A further brief stop was made for the customary afternoon lolly and we rolled into Augustow really early on account of the combined effects of a lovely tailwind and our gaining an hour due to the time difference with the Baltic's.
Biked straight into the centre, found the IT bureau by complete chance, and then (dodging a mahoosive rain shower) biked straight out again to our third choice of hotel. This involved a bit of off roading as the road became an unmade sandy track. There followed the 'save of the century' as the front wheel washed out in the sand and we, somehow, managed to get the old girl straightened up and back to pointing and going in a forwards direction....
To our surprise, we seem to be on a bit of a tourist trade route here and the hotels are doing much better business than in Lithuania.
After a shower and tidy up, we taxied back into town for dinner and multiple delicious Espresso's then retired for the evening to our room feeling somewhat content with the world.
Total today a tailwind fuelled though HGV infested 60 miles and 335m of ascent. Total trip 1598 miles.
More Southerly ramblings to follow.
Back soon. Miles & Tracey.
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